it has been a while

I have been busish. I have had work but not enough to say i have not had time to write. I just have not been motivated. I have notice over the past few weeks, maybe because i have not been writing maybe because exams are coming up but I have a growing anxiety.

I assume it is the tests. It is funny how I know this task is coming up and still have the little kid reaction that if i try to ignore it it will go away. It would be the easy way out, but whenever has taking the easy way out gotten you anywhere.

When I was reading about law school a lot of people talk about the breaking you down process. It is weird how I think, no it is not happening to me. I am going to stay the way I am. However, I believe it is working. The first quarter seems to just be a slow breaking down of your own way of thinking. The only ways of thinking are the ones that solve the problems. There is no real thinking outside of the box. Just very methodical thinking inside the box. There is no surprise info giving and the answers are never complex, just in the details.

I know this one babbles on but that is the mood I am in today. It seems to be another bad day after yesterday and just trying to get through the week one task at a time.

staying the course

Two saying have been running through my head... "anything which is obtained easy is not worth it." and "if hard work pays off, easy work is worthless."

I am always curious when two similar thoughts stay with me. I find the hardest thing for me to do sometimes is to stay the course. I will admit one of my downfalls is to fold my cards so to say when I see things going poorly. It is something I fight with. I hate that I will give up and I know it started in high school, it was a slippery slope from there.

I have yet to have this tested in law school, but I never the less doubt it will sooner or later.

However, I have had it tested many times in the gym. I will admit last spring I folded my cards way earlier then I should have. I did not work as hard as I should have. I also folded them in the fall. I have come out of that. Yes I have regret from it which is probably worse then feeling in my mind.

My goal is to start staying the course. I like winning and succeed but that is only possible through sticking through the hard times. I have stopped trying at times when it gets hard and that all needs to stop.

I have notice the my training and life have kept taking changes. My training has developed me to places I did not think I would ever go. I am happy for that, but it now time for me to take an active role and take that next step. I still believe I have a lot to go, but I have to be willing to take the pain and embrace the suck. I have to learn to accept that in order to get where you want to go you have to go through some tough hard spots. It is getting through those tough spots that filters out the weak and timid.

Time to take that step.

20lb. of Humble Soup

This morning I got served!

You might be asking what did I get served. Well the only thing on the menu was 20 lb. of humble soup. It did not taste great.

However I learned about myself. I am normally the one who gets to finish the workouts first. I enjoy winning I will not be shy about that. Anyone who says they do not enjoy winning is lying, winning is fun and everyone enjoys fun. Today I was the last one to finish. Most of the class had left by the time I finished the workout some 43 minutes after it started.

I know that I pushed and pushed for those 43 minutes. This is not a push that you get in a Fran or Helen or anything shorter. It is a different test of your mettle. This is not I cannot do one more pull up, it is can I just keep going. You have the time to ask yourself the question, "should I just quit and get it over with?" When you ask yourself that question is when you get to decide what you want to do.

The options are simple quit. There is no shame in quitting, but quitting is not winning. Quitting is a habit, once you start quitting when are you going to stop. It is the same as running from your problem. That is why I decided that no matter how long it took I was going to finish.

When I finished, it did not seem that bad. Is that not the weirdest feeling. Whenever I finish something difficult and which took effort my first thought is to discount it. However, in retrospect that attitude of not quitting in workout is something that I carry into my life.

I never want to quit. There is something very honorable in finishing what you started. Why do you think our society looks up to it so much. Because the majority of people like to take the easy way out when shit gets tough. How many people are sitting around waiting for the "miracles" of science to solve their problems? These peoples problems would be solved by getting off their own ass and not quitting until they are where they want to be.

My goal is to never quit. I feel if that if this is my goal I can always be victorious. The only time you are really defeated is when you quit.

Inspirational Quote: "The difference between success and failure is getting up one more time."

crossfit and law school

My post have become a weekly due to the whole school thing getting in my way. It is amazing how quickly your mind changes though. Two weeks ago I had no idea what I was reading, no idea how to look at it. I would just go through the motions of reading it with not being able to connect it in anyway to anything.

Now I am able to read something and have a decent idea of what it is saying. I have found myself slowly adding other ideas from other classes into it. My understanding of the whole picture is developing. I am surprised with how quickly I have been able to draw conclusions. I figured the first quarter I would have no idea. While who knows maybe in another two weeks I will say I had no idea what I was talking about then.

This all reminds me about when I start crossfit. In honest it probably will be very similar to my journey through crossfit. When you first start you are just doing what the trainer tells you. If he says you are not popping your hips, you pop your hips. If he says to drive your heels into the ground, while you drive your heels into the ground. However, you quickly learn the individual movements. Over a little time you are able to put it all together.

This transformation does not happen over night, but over a period of time. All of the sudden you are understanding that the drive out of the hips necessary to finish off a clean are the same drive necessary for a good kettlebell swing. That core stabilization is necessary for every movement. These evolution in your thinking about the movements takes time and practice. Some can easily come in and tell you, but you will still not understand until you put your hands on the tools of the trade.

Law school to me is no different. Everything builds on something else. Just as kettlebell swings help you understand to feelings of finishing a pull on a clean, pennoyer v. neff helps you understand International shoe. These things all build on each other.

This is true about all things in life. You live life in a straight line so to speak. You are not way over to the left one moment and right the next. Everything you do in life builds up on the future. That is why it is important to have the best base you can. Your future is a direct reflection on your ability to better yourself today.

What motivates you?

I saw something today which made me think who motivated him? The clear answer was his own ego. You could read it in his writing that he thought he was a big awesome beast. Well I say if that is what motivates him good for him.

This made me think what motivates me?

I am never really sure. At times I can tell it is to look good. This is not in the fashion sense, but in the sense of looking like a good person. However, there are times when I am motivated by my own pride. Pride is a great motivator. It forces you to do more, push yourself farther and harder then you thought possible. However, it has to be kept in check.

If your pride over runs your motivation, it becomes all about yourself. You start writing like the guy I know who motivated this post. Also when your pride takes over, it becomes all about you. It is never all about you. That should never be forgotten.

People should take pride in themselves. Everyone is a very talented person in their own way. However, do not forget it takes a lot of different talents to make a village. Also, that you did not do anything worth doing on your own. It took people with other talents to help form you. This is something I always want to remember. I have had some pretty talented people help form me into the person I am . I hope I can have that pride of talented people taking stock in me motivate me in the future.

busy

It has been a busy first week. I have been putting in about 10 hours each day. I will not say that i hate it though. I am enjoying the concepts and subjects I am learning. The professors are pretty good. I have only had to talk in class a few times, but look forward to chances to talk more.

I am curious to see how these long weeks, which I expect to increase, will wear on me. I believe I will be able to stay going to the gym in the morning monday, wednesday, friday. This is very exciting to me. I want to stay in the gym. I am seeing gains from just being in a box again.

I am going to start intermittent fasting (IF). This to me means just taking a day or so a week where you do not eat. I am going to start this week. Tuesday will be the day I fast. This is because I am not in the gym on Tuesdays. I am going to keep notes on how it goes.

Orientation

The 2nd day of orientation was today. It was more of the same, law school is going to be tough, you will have to work harder then you ever had etc. There was some useful information, but a lot of repeated info. However, there was one topic which I took away. I am going to have to go to that place in order to succeed.

That place is somewhere I have learned to go thanks to crossfit. That place is the place where you push yourself to the limit, then go a little further. That place is beyond where you think you can go, where you will normally not let yourself go. That place is also the place what is going to help me succeed.

The reason for this is cause law school is a lot of work. There are going to be long hours. However, thanks to crossfit I know I can put in those long hours and work hard. I know that I can go beyond my limits.

I know that I am going to develop and change mentally a lot this year. I am just happy that I have had the mental training that crossfit provides for over two years prior to entering law school. Also, I am going to have to keep up crossfitting to keep up the mental training. I know all my hard work will pay off. Now is just the time to put in the hard work.

The heat is taking me longer to adjust to then I thought. I guess it being 100 plus everyday means it is hot! On a less positive note, I tore my other hand today. I guess it is what I get for not doing pull ups for months. I think it will just take time to condition my hands and to the heat.

I am going to start going to the gym in the morning. 0615 class. It is early but it is what I need to do to make sure I can get to the gym. I hope that it works out. I am excited again and can not wait to get back into the gym everyday. There is no better feeling in the world.

Tomorrow I start orientation. I am excited to meet new people. The journey is starting!

Settled in Waco

Sorry about the long time off. I have been moving. Did not realize how much little ducks had to get in a row when you move. However, I am pretty settled now. Sara visited last weekend, which was nice.

I have started my schoolwork already. I have been doing assigned reading for the first week. I am enjoying it so far. I am not sure I will be able to say the same for much longer.

However, the more exciting news is that I have been to Crossfit Waco. I have missed the gym feel. I have been more or less on my own in the backyard for the past three months. It feels great to do pull ups again. Although they need a lot of work.

Today we did Jackie. I did it in 9:57. I feel happy with that time for now. I have to realize I have not been on a rower or pull up bar in months. I will say though after a month I hope to take a minute or so off that time.

The thing I have realized I missed the most is the feel of a 45 lb bar. I am looking forward to getting back to some heavy cleans and snatches. There is no better feeling to me then hitting that weight you previously though was impossible.

I am looking for the next several months to make constant improvement in both my strength and gymnastic movements. That is were my focus is going to be.

moved or moving

Well I have everything for my apartment. I never realized how much work it was to move. The list seemed never ending of things to get. However, now physically I have all I need for my journey.

The things I need for my journey is not limited to these physical things. After all a journey is not about what you have with you, but your actually movement. This means that just having my apartment ready does not make me ready for law school. I have to be mentally ready too.

My mental toughness I had to gain over time. Every time I did a workout, I have done things to get prepared for law school. It is now a question if I am able to turn that mental toughness in a workout to being able to mentally push myself.

I have a feeling the move in my mental state will be harder then just buying a bunch of items for living.

the journey starts

I just got back from vacation, unpacked the car. Then it was time to pack it up again for TEXAS!!! I am excited. Tomorrow I start the two day drive with my mom and Remmy. It should be a good time.

I have not felt this excited to spend 25 hours in the car with my mom. I know it is going to get lonely at first, but so was Columbia and I turned out with a great deal of good friends. I am glad to say I made it through the summer working landscaping. Although I did want to quit cause it sucked. I did it. Mentally it allowed me to grow.

I am hoping to take the mental growth and dominate some workouts soon. After I am settled in Waco on Wednesday. I am going to go try Crossfit Waco out on Thursday. I am pumped to get back in a crossfit gym around crossfitters. I am hoping it is a good one, cause I know what bad ones can do to you.

Tomorrow it all begins....

What is Crossfit.. to me?

I have recently seen a lot of these Crossfit commercial which try to define Crossfit. I think one of the great things about Crossfit is that it is hard find words to completely define.

Crossfit physically is a workout program. There is no additions to it. However, what that workout program allows you to do is amazing. It has given people with aliments the ability to live a pain free life. It is very common to hear about someone who was told they would have bad knees their whole life. Start Crossfit and have no problems again. However, there is more.

Crossfit allows you to become mentally fit. Crossfit goes beyond just training your body, it trains your mind. People who Crossfit are mental stronger then others. There whole idea that there are tasks not able to accomplish goes away. What other workout program does that?

However, what makes Crossfit unable to be defined only as a workout program are the people. The people you Crossfit with, become good friends. There are very few enemies in a true box. I have been in boxes which contain animosity. It is the worst thing for everyone. However, most boxes are friendly. Everyone is there to help each other out.

The community goes beyond your own box though. There can be a time when you run into a stranger, find out he is a Crossfitter, and all of the sudden you are good friends. This is because you both know what it is like.

Crossfitters are all very similar. They are highly motivated, determined, competitive yet easy going people. They enjoy pushing themselves to the limit, testing against others. However they know the true enemy is always going to be within. I know when I go slower, I am happy for the other, not angry. In what other community will you see that?

Inspirational Quote: "It chooses you. You do not choose it." -Unknown

good spot

This is a free write...

It has popped into my head a lot about moving. I am moving soon and will be taking a trip this weekend. I guess I look back and realize at one point I had a really good spot. However, it came time to move on from that spot. I did, because I know when I land again in another one, it will be great. I have had great coaches form me into a passable coach and athlete. I am always very thankful for that.

It is thanks to these people I have had the honor to call coach that I know I will end up in great places. I know not to settle for anything less then great. I owe a great amount of debt to these people. These are people who with no blood relation to me, treated me like family. Yes, we had our rough spots but who doesn't?

Unfortunately, I had to move away from my coaches. I wish I could stay close to them and help form me better. But it was time to move on. I know I will land on my feet again, someday. I look forward to that day.

crossfit games

I had the pleasure of watching a great sporting event this weekend, the crossfit games. To me this was one of the best sporting events I had the pleasure to watch. This is a little bias since I am a crossfitter. However, to someone who is new to the life, it did an amazing job of illustrating what makes the life so great.

Crossfit is a unique sporting event. This is because the spectators are a lot more then spectators. The spectators all are active in the sport. At a football game you might have some former players, but very few, and almost none active. At the crossfit games, ever specator is an active crossfitter.

This means that all the spectators understand the athletes’ pain. They understand how hard it is when the athlete is looking down at the barbell questionings how many more he/she can do. They understand cause they have been there, probably within the past week.

Beyond the spectators being so informed, the athletes are supportive. This is someone who just put everything they had into a workout, now yelling at you to finish it also. This is very unique to crossfit. It is rare in any other sport to see competitors helping out each other. Giving each other that emotional support necessary to finish it out. That is because as crossfitters, we all know what it is like and know how much a, “here we go!” helps out.

This last aspect is why I love crossfit. I can sit there and try my hardest every day to beat someone. However, this will not stop me from helping them when they need. It also will not stop them from helping me.

I am not saying that every crossfitter is like that. But it was nice to see even at the top of the sport for the year, the competitors are like that. It gives great role models to look up to for both their physical and moral attributes.

Inspirational quote: “our spectators can beat up your spectators!” crossfit commentator

pacing....

Time Management

I learned very quickly while running cross country in high school that pace is everything. My first race I was so nervous of running out super fast and dying, as a result I did the opposite. I believe that my first mile was in the 10 minutes range. However, the fear of going out fast and dying was real. There were tons of people who wanted to be a hero. They wanted to lead the race even if it was in the first 400. The ones who win the race though, find their pace and ignore the surroundings.

This is a lesson that I noticed again at the Carolina sectional. The guys who went at a nice even pace won. The ones who went super fast at the start died and finished poorly. It is misguided to believe you can go out quickly and maintain, your adrenaline runs out eventually.

I have been able to put these lessons to go use in my workouts. My goal is to never go out super fast and die. My goal is to maintain a good pace and pick it up as I go on. I have found great success in the past few months with this strategy. It has led me to many good workouts and I hope to employ it at law school.

The application should be rather straight forward. Do not work yourself at a blistering pace you know you will not be able to keep up. In shorter terms, do not work so hard that you burn out in the first month. Yes, you have to work hard, but the goal is to work your hardest over the whole year. There is no point in peaking in the first week. I hope not to hit my high in the first week and only have down to head.

Workout: 1 press, 3 push press, 5 push jerk, 7 push ups, 9 double unders, 10 rounds. This was all done with the 60 lb sandbag. I was able to finish in 9:39. My goal was under ten, so I am happy.

Inspirational quote: “You only have to be leading when you cross the final line.” -Anonymous

One L, my review

In prepping for law school I have started doing many things. I have been working on organization. I have been trying to grasp as many legal things as possible. I have also been reading as much as possible. In my preperation for law school I was recommended by a friend to read, One L, by Scott Turow.

This is a book about his journey in his first year at law school. He attended Harvard in the mid 70's, but lessons he learned are still relavent today. If you are even thinking about law school, I recommend you read it. However if you have no interest in law school I would suggest you avoid it.

One L is great for the purpose of educating soon to be one l's. One l is what a first year law student is called. Turow with his journals give real insight to how an one l will be feeling. How to deal with professors, students, and yourself. This book is very focused on this group. It would not have appeal for the most part outside of the soon to be law student group.

One L fails to attract other groups due to its narrow focus on a specific unique experience, the first year of law school. Due to this fact, if you are not an aspring law student it will be boring. Also, Turow seems to get on his high horse often, talking about how great Harvard is. This no matter who you are gets old after the first 50 pages. After that point it is just annoying snobbery.

Overall, One L for me was a good read. I was interested in the subject matter. I feel it has given me more insight to what I should be expecting to experience in the coming year. Hopefully it will help me do better in my first year.

how much do I eat?

When tweaking your diet, quality is probably the most important factor. This means not just getting the good types of fruits and vegatables, but also from good sources. The second most important factor behind quality is quantity. With quantity I have struggled in the past.

The most important part of quantity for me is making sure I get enough. I am very picky on what I eat. I want no grains, fruits and vegatables only. But beyond that, I want more vegatables always. However, I know the importance of making sure I am getting enough food and recently have added in more fruits. It is crazy to think that I would keep them out cause I do not want to eat to much. I do not know what I was thinking.

I say this because I know how important getting enough food is. You have to be giving your body enough to rebuild itself or you will not advance. The whole goal is to get into better shape, not the number on the scale, this is accomplished by giving my body all of what it needs to be health. I also have the advantage of being highly active. This means I am burning so much fuel each day, over eating is not a concern.

Giving your body the fuel neccessary for life means, enough for your activities and to recover. My concern is on the recovery side. I have always had injures. In retrospect, my running injuries are from bad running technique. I have been able to start fixing that with pose running. But I still need to make sure I am giving my body the fuel to recover from workouts, in order to avoid injuries.

The question is how do you know when you have had enough. The simple answer for me is when I think I have had enough, I eat some more. This is because I am very bad at short changing myself. I was on the zone for so long, I think that a few meals a month over what I need will hurt me. As a result I will overcompansate by not eating enough for any meal. However, I know to still stay in reason.

The question you have to answer is what is in reason for you. I highly encourage eating when hungry and until full. I know this does not work for me in my current situation, but has in the past. Now if you are highly active you need more fuel. The whole trick is to play with what you eat. But the first step is always eliminating grains and sugars.

Rest

This whole post just got delated and now I have to rewrite it. Reminds me why I am getting a MAC.

I have decided to take this week as a rest week. The concept of rest is something which I have struggled with. It seems counterproductive to not be working out. I know my body needs time to recover, but I feel it is. However this week will be a light to no working out.

This let me to think about how it can be incorporated to the rest of life. The simple fact is that you are forced to rest from things which you love to do. For most people, you are not allowed to do your hobbies for a living. This is what keeps them fun. You get short periods of stress free time to do them. You are also not able to do them all the time. This leds you to never getting sick of them.

If rest leds you to be able to get more done, then it is productive. This is what I am still learning. If by resting this week, I am able to do more push ups next week, it was productive. This can be put into the rest of the life. If by resting a little from your work, you are able to do more. Then rest must be an important factor. Lack of rest from a subject is why you see people burn out. It is impossible to not divert your attention and not burn out. This is why rest is important.

SOrry about the bad post. I will produce better. I am just very fustrated that when I was just about done, the computer highlighted all and delated and would not let me undo.

very tired

This is going to be short. I am very tired. I stayed up late last night to watch the end of the south carolina college world series game. I am glad to say USC is the national champs. The lost sleep was worth the price. However I felt the effects of it all day. It is interesting to note how i felt.

My fear is that this is how I will have to be at law school. I hope I am able to get more then 6 hours of sleep a night. I know some nights I will not be able to. I am just hoping that I will be smart enough to know I need sleep to function well and that those extra 90 to 120 minutes make a world of difference.

My goal is to put all more learning experience towards success at law school. I hope I am able to, I know I will have failures, but I know that is how you learn. I just hope at the end my achievements are up to my expectations.

Workout: 40 handstand push ups, 80 kettlebell swings. The trick was as many handstand push ups I did, I had to do twice as many kettlebell swings. I came in with a poor time of 11:05. I am crediting the poor time to being tired.

Inspirational quote: "Everything is a learning experience."

Why specialize?!?!??!

For decades people have felt that you have to specialize your training to your sport. There is no need to specialize training. In fact it is possible to get more gains through not specializing. In this case specialized training refers to programs where the emphasis is on sport specific training. If that is what specialized training is, non-specialized training is doing the opposite. This means it is just training hard in a variety of ways to get better fit across broad measures. Non-specialized training is more beneficial to all but a select few athletes.

There can be many reasons why an athlete would choose not to specialize his training. However the reason is not important, the athlete is making a good choice to get better across many measures. Any athlete should always want to get better across the ten basic measures of fitness. Those measures are accuracy, agility, balance, cardio endurance, coordination, flexibility, power, speed, stamina, and strength. When an athlete is able to get better across all of these, he becomes a better athlete. The best athletes in many fields are able to be good at many sports because of their grasp on these ten traits. Look at pro athletes for an example. Yes they are specialized in one sport, but many could probably play another sports at a close to professional level.

The biggest reason though to not specialize is that it is possible to get stronger and faster by not specializing. When you specialize you have to cut out some part of fitness to focus on another. That part missing is no less important to your overall fitness level. The more overall fit an athlete is, the better he will be at any sport.

There are times when specializing is good. If you are an athlete training for the Olympics in 100m dash, by all means just focus on sprinting. However there might be some speed you lose by not lifting weights to get stronger. If you want to be very good at a very narrow focused skill set, by all means specialize. If you are someone who just wants to be better at life in general, non-specialized training will be the best for you.

Workout: Buy in was 100 double unders, then 30-20-10 of sandbag lunges, and sandbag presses. Total time was 7:07. The double unders were about 1:14. This is over a minute improvement over last time. I was able to do 77 double unders in a row! Most I have done by about 15.

Inspirational Quote: “World-Class Fitness in 100 Words: -Eat meat and vegetables, nuts and seeds, some fruit, little starch and no sugar. Keep intake to levels that will support exercise but not body fat. – Practice and train major lifts: Deadlift, clean, squat, presses, C&J, and snatch. Similarly, master the basics of gymnastics: pull-ups, dips, rope climb, push-ups, sit-ups, presses to handstand, pirouettes, flips, splits, and holds. Bike, run, swim, row, etc, hard and fast. –Five or six days per week mix these elements in as many combinations and patterns as creativity will allow. Routine is the enemy. Keep workouts short and intense. –Regularly learn and play new sports.” –crossfit.com